If you’re looking for time-saving AND content consistency (ideally 4x/week to daily) benefits when posting to Instagram (IG), schedule them!

Currently, you cannot schedule posts directly through the Instagram app. However, there are a few easy-to-use scheduling tools available. My favorite is Later.

Using this tool, you can schedule your posts from the web (Later.com) or the mobile app by simply selecting a photo, writing your caption, and choosing the day and time you want your post to publish.

To have your created posts auto-publish (at a scheduled day/time) to your Instagram account, you must use a business profile. If you don’t have a business profile, you’ll receive a notification from Later when you hit “Publish”. But, I highly recommend using a business account if you’re marketing your store on Instagram.

You can efficiently time-block 30 minutes to a few hours (depending on the amount of content you create) to get your week’s or month’s content loaded. Phew. I now give you permission to be excited that you’re not winging it again this month and confident about allowing that daily Instagram-post weight on your shoulders to fall off with a thud. And what’s more, you did it all while using Later’sfree version.

With the paid version, you can unlock features like analytics, scheduling to several profiles (if you have multiple store locations), scheduling videos, tagging Locations and Users (tagging your store and customers) in scheduled posts and getting Hashtag Suggestions.

As of today, you can’t fully schedule Instagram Stories, but you can get everything loaded and ready to go. Just select the time you want your story/stories to go live and you’ll receive a push notification beforehand to publish them. Hopefully soon, Later will allow you to automatically schedule stories just like you can with pictures/videos to your feed.

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Have a question about Instagram? Leave a comment below. I’m happy to help!